


Overpowered

by canaryrose



Category: Homestuck, Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Superheroes, Supervillains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 04:31:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13240485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canaryrose/pseuds/canaryrose
Summary: In a world where superpowered individuals are coming into existence day by day, there are 16 teenagers living in this broken world. They have acquired superpowers, and will be the next superheroes and supervillains. But, will they even survive their adolescence? Having superpowers is hard.





	Overpowered

I can’t remember much of my family. 

It started off small- I couldn’t seem to recall the little things. Birthdays, favorite foods, preferences… I guess I hadn’t seen them in such a long time that I had begun to forget. And then, over time, the losses grew and grew. It got to the point where I could no longer recall my sister’s face, my own mother’s voice. But it’s okay. I can get on without them.

This is the way it’s meant to be for me. The way the fates intended it. After all, nothing ever goes your way, not completely. I didn’t ask to be a ghost, or at least a part-time ghost. Yet I became one, did horrible things in order to survive. And here I am, standing in the aftermath of that. A home, the void left by my mother and sister partially filled by the two who I consider family in a way.

I don’t really miss them, almost not at all in fact. But sometimes I feel the tugging of emotion on my heart and consider what could’ve been. A family. I had had one, once, but those memories are long gone. I liked archaeology, I recall that at least. Wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up. I doubt young Aradia would’ve liked the path I had gone down. She may have liked Feferi and Nepeta, at least. I know I do.

A smile tugs at my lips, and I glance over to the aforementioned girls, one of which is begging the other to play a roleplaying game with her after we finish with the job. Roleplaying. Didn’t I like that, once? Was that a hobby of mine? I can barely remember games, played, in another life. Briefly, faces warped by time flash in my mind. A girl with knotty brown hair, a cheeky smile on her face. Another girl, her face almost taken over by pointy red glasses, and a boy, one with a nervous smile. Maybe those were the people I played with. Can’t remember their names, but I recall the concept. Friendship. Memories long past. I let the fragment float back into memory. It isn’t worth recalling. 

“Ara!” Nepeta shouts, shaking me out of my haze. “Where’d you go?” I glance around the room at first, trying to determine if I had wandered out of the room, and then I looked down. Oh. I let out a small giggle and shifted into my more… eye-friendly state. 

“Here!” I shake out my mess of hair, shrugging on my armor that will go underneath my shroud. “I must’ve phased into my ghostly state without thinking, sorry.” It’s a reflex at this point, to shift into it when I’m vulnerable. I’m pretty sure they’re used to me just disappearing at this point. 

“Great! OK, I think Feffers is still getting her costume on, and I have mine on, so we should go in about… five minutes?” Nepeta said, a stupid smile on her face. She was busying herself with sharpening her custom made claws to a sharp point, making sure they were in tip-top shape for the almost inevitable battle that was going to occur soon. Not like they would ever be blunt- Equius simply hadn’t built anything sub-par, and he had certainly crafted all of his gear- Nepeta’s especially- with care. He would’ve hated seeing it become useless. 

Feferi stood in the corner of the room, just finishing up. She was putting her mask on her head, which was a gas mask, except the filtering parts had been replaced with tentacles and a beak. The material had been painted over with care, it now being a soft blue, green, and pink instead of its original black. Now that’s something I can remember. Painting over that mask with care and precision, screwing up a few times and laughing… it’s one of my few pleasant memories. 

The rest of her costume consists of the same industrial strength under armour that we all have as well as some other pieces of clothing. Her top is a long-sleeved shirt, covered in shiny scales that actually have texture to them. Her skirt is held up by a hula hoop-like thing, and it’s a sheer thing with hints of pink, blue, and green. I can’t see it behind her mask, but I know there’s a smile on that face of hers. There always is. 

I shrug on my shroud, which is significantly darker than the other two’s costumes. Fitting, considering that my cape name is Grimm. An unfortunate name, really- but I’m lucky it hadn’t been worse, that my previous bosses hadn’t chosen for me. Having the heroes choose instead had generated a much better name than the ideas they had had. Putting the lower face mask into place, I head to the door, grabbing my scythe on the way. 

“You ready?” I ask, raising my eyebrows from behind the shroud. “We’ll most likely end up fighting somebody.” 

Nepeta and Feferi- Pounce and Cuttle, I have to remember that those are their names once in costume- nod in affirmation, the former chewing on her gloves. She quickly removes the hand once she notices I’m looking, gazing downwards at the carpeted floor of our living room. 

I put my hand out. “On three?” I suggest, and Cuttle puts her hand in first, motioning for Pounce to join the circle as well. The cat-themed supervillain puts in hers as well, and I count… “One. Two. Three. GOOOO, SQUAD!” On three, we throw our hands up, as usual. After all, it’s the routine before a job to do this. 

At that, we head out the side door, climbing down the fire escape to the pavement below. Pounce glances around the lot, checking to ensure that nobody’s there. And, if there was, they’d probably run away after seeing us. Or not. If not I’d probably have to scare them off. But there wasn’t anyone there, so I didn’t have to murder anyone just yet. Probably. 

I check my phone again, for the meeting place. A warehouse near the Docks, should be concealed enough to hide five supervillains meeting together. I had to give the other two props for that- it was a good place to meet. 

The two had approached us after a very successful job one night- called themselves Thief and Blind Justice. We had discussed an alliance, and it seemed like it might work out! The duo had seemed like they’d be capable of working with us to an extent, although they had seemed a little wary of me… but I guess that was expected. I was a bit scary, after all! With the raggedy shroud and the scythe, I tended to have that sort of effect on people. 

“We’re here!” Cuttle said, poking me. We had come to a stop at a small, abandoned looking building. The door was ajar, seemingly from the other two’s entrance. I winced. We were late. Not the best first impression. 

The building looked worn down, sort of like a crack shack. There was a hint of blue paint on the walls and roof, but it seemed that most of it had rotted with age. Vines and moss climbed up the rest of the building, doing further to enforce the vision of ‘crack shack’. The door, as I inspected further, was actually missing a doorknob. The windows had been smashed in years ago, and graffiti covered the building. 

Well! Definitely not a suspicious place for a meeting at all. Not at all. Zilch, zero, nada. Hopefully they weren’t the kind of people to frequent crack shacks.

We wandered in, and the inside was exactly as terrible looking as the outside was. Two girls stood in the middle, dressed in costumes. The one with the pointy glasses- which were familiar, I must say- had a sword with a dragon on its hilt sheathed at her side, and the girl with the mask had some… dice? Must be an aesthetic thing.

Thief noticed us, perking up. “Ey. Hey, Justice, they’re here! Finally, we’ve been waiting forever for you slowpokes!” 

Blind Justice nodded, not looking in our direction. Her name must be true, then. She is blind. She did a dramatic bow. “Why, good evening!”

“Good evening!” I say, bowing as well. “We have made an agreement, yes?”

“Well, yeah,” Thief says, throwing one of her dice in the air and catching it elegantly. I idly notice that every single one is a d8. Odd. She must really like the number 8, then. “We just need to discuss the uh… terms. Of our agreement.” 

Cuttle replies to her next. “Whale, we should probubbly do that before we waste anenomone time!” 

Blind Justice cackles. “Nice pun! Now, I was thinking... “ she smoothly whips out a tablet. “Obviously, for each job we do together, each of us gets 20% of the earnings, give or take. Now now, you might say ‘well, your powers are fucking weak,’ but that’s not the case. Thief here,” she jerks a thumb to her compatriot, “is great if we have to fight a bitch. She’s strong, and good in a fight against a cape. Although she is dumb.” At this, the young woman put her head back to cackle. 

Thief rolls her eyes. I suppress the urge to giggle at their antics, but I’m pretty sure Pounce does instead.

“I, however, can read people extraordinarily well, despite being fuck-all blind. I’m an empath, pretty much.”

“Hm,” I say, quiet. “You already know our powersets, I believe. It’s a deal, if my two friends here agree.”

Pounce and Cuttle nod, and I extend my hand to Blind Justice, who sniffs and meets my hand. 

“Deal.”


End file.
